Kristen Wiig

Early life

Wiig was born August 22, 1973 in Canandaigua, New York, the daughter of Jon Wiig, who ran a lake marina in Western New York, and Laurie (Johnston), an artist. Her father has Norwegian and Irish ancestry and her mother is of English and Scottish descent. The name Wiig comes from an area in Sogn og Fjordane in Norway.

Wiig moved with her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at the age of three, and attended Nitrauer Elementary School and Manheim Township Middle School until eighth grade. She then moved to Rochester, New York, with her family at the age of 13, where she attended the prestigious Allendale Columbia School for ninth and tenth grades and graduated from Brighton High School.

She left for her first try at college and, not finding what she wanted, returned to Rochester. She attended community college and did a three-month outdoor-living program. She had no performing ambitions at this time. Wiig attended the University of Arizona, majoring in Art. When she took an acting class in college to fulfill a course requirement, the teacher suggested she continue to act. She expected to start out a job at a plastic surgery clinic drawing pictures of people's postsurgery bodies, but decided to move to Los Angeles and act.

Early career

Kristen relocated to Los Angeles to act while working odd jobs to support herself. She performed with Empty Stage Comedy Theatre and with The Groundlings. She felt improv was a better fit than acting, and being a part of the comedy group improved her skills. In 2003, she appeared in the Spike TV show The Joe Schmo Show, a spoof of reality television, in which she played "Dr. Pat", a quack marriage counselor.

While at The Groundlings, Wiig's manager encouraged her to submit an audition tape to Saturday Night Live.

Television

Wiig debuted on SNL shortly into season 31, on November 12, 2005. She survived an SNL budget cut, becoming a full member of the repertory cast at the beginning of season 32 in 2006 and until 2012.

Wiig was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Saturday Night Live (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). In December 2009, she headlined in the Christmas special SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas, which featured new sketches with her character Gilly and highlights of older SNL clips. Wiig was featured in Entertainment Weekly's list of 15 Great Performances for her various impersonations on Saturday Night Live (December 2008) and in EW's list of the 25 Funniest Women in Hollywood (April 2009). As of 2011, she voiced Lola Bunny in the series The Looney Tunes Show.

Her final performance as a cast member on Saturday Night Live was season 37, episode 22, which aired on May 19, 2012. The show was hosted by Mick Jagger. The closing celebration of her time on the show included SNL alumni Amy Poehler, Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Will Forte, and Rachel Dratch, as well as Steve Martin and Jon Hamm. She returned to host the program on May 11, 2013. On February 19, 2014, Wiig appeared on the second episode of fellow SNL alumnus Jimmy Fallon's run on The Tonight Show from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. In what appeared to be an unscripted spoof, she played the role of ideal boy band One Direction member Harry Styles. She returned as a special guest to appear in the monologue and several sketches of SNL again alongside host Bill Hader on October 14, 2014.

For singer-songwriter Sia's performance of her 2014 single "Chandelier" at the 2015 Grammy Awards, Wiig danced alongside child dancer Maddie Ziegler. She also joined with Levi Miller, Laura Marano, and Charice Pempengco to dance during a performance of The Chainsmokers' song "Closer" at a live show in Manila in August 2016.

Film

Wiig made her film debut in the 2006 Christmas movie Unaccompanied Minors. The following year, she appeared in Judd Apatow's comedy Knocked Up as a passive-aggressive assistant and performed in Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard, another Apatow-produced film. In 2008, she had small roles in several films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and David Koepp's Ghost Town. In 2009, Wiig had supporting roles in Greg Mottola's Adventureland, Mike Judge's Extract, and Whip It, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. In 2010, she appeared in the films MacGruber, the animated comedies Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things. Wiig had her first lead role as Ruth Buggs in Greg Mottola's comedy Paul in 2011.

Later in 2011, she starred in the film Bridesmaids, which she co-wrote with fellow Groundlings performer Annie Mumolo. Universal Pictures, released the film on May 13, 2011. The film became both a critical and box office success, receiving two nominations for Best Picture-Musical or Comedy and Wiig was nominated for Best Actress-Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy at the 69th Golden Globe Awards. The film also received two Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, for which Wiig and Mumolo were nominated. The second nomination was for Best Supporting Actress for co-star Melissa McCarthy. The film grossed over $280 million worldwide.

In 2014, Wiig starred with Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins. In 2015, she starred in Nasty Baby, as Polly, a family practitioner who is more interested in having a baby than having a boyfriend. The film was directed by Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva. Wiig also starred in Welcome to Me, a comedy-drama directed by Shira Piven which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2014, news outlets reported that Wiig and Mumolo were writing a new comedy, which will see Wiig making her debut as a director. The name of the film and release date are yet to be confirmed. In 2016, Wiig played one of the leading roles in the reboot Ghostbusters alongside Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon.

In the Autumn of 2016, she appeared in video as an onstage "stand-in" during the Nostalgia For the Present concert tour of Australian singer Sia Furler for her song, "One Million Bullets."

In February 2017, Variety confirmed that Wiig will star in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann, opposite Jack Nicholson. The same year, she appeared in the films Mother!, directed by Darren Aronofsky, and Downsizing, directed by Alexander Payne, and also starring Matt Damon.

Personal life

Wiig was married to actor Hayes Hargrove from 2005 to 2009. Wiig endorsed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in 2016.

Awards and nominations